About Us

Invest in Darlington is Darlington Borough Council's inward investment team, with a strategic aim to secure new investment and employment for the borough. This is achieved through the global business marketing of Darlington, targetting key markets and sectors, and the provision of free and confidential advice and assistance for location consultants and potential investors.

Our services are available to national and international companies that wish to relocate to or expand within the area, and we also work with our existing businesses to ensure that we maximise business and jobs growth.

We work in close partnership with TVU and UKTI to deliver a confidential and bespoke service to our clients.

To find out more about what makes our support different please see below or contact us today for more information.

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'Wrap Around' Support

The 'Invest in Darlington' team provides investors with a 'wrap around' service designed to ensure that your investment enquiry is handled quickly and professionally.

We provide:-

a single, first point of contact to eliminate duplication and confusion from first engagement through to actual investment;

a rapid response to all enquiries;

appropriate, relevant and timely information to support your enquiry;

a Project Manager on behalf of the council who will co-ordinate responses from other parts of the organisation relevant to your enquiry, such as planning, building control, environmental health and highways, as well as providing relevant information and contacts for infrastructure service providers, or utilities provision;

introductions to external specialists and intermediaries as required;

provide advice on what sources of funding and business support you may be eligible for

'One Stop Shop' for Planning

Our 'One Stop Shop' for Planning is a business friendly planning process designed to help applicants to deliver high quality developments. Key benefits of the scheme are:-

it gives an opportunity to understand how our policies will be applied to the development and can advise what is required in order for a development to be determined favourably, subject to a formal application and the results of public consultation. It can also indicate that a proposal has little or no realistic chance of success, so saving considerable time and money;

it may lead to a reduction in time spent in engaging professional advisers in working up the proposals in more detail as it can identify issues before an application is submitted;

it can help prevent costly and time consuming amendments to schemes at a later date;

it can identify at an early stage whether any specialist advice is needed .e.g. highways, flood risk, trees, listed buildings etc;

it can give an opportunity to meet with all relevant council officers who may need to discuss your application.

News and Events

Leader's in-principle support for airport plans

Councillor Stephen Harker, Leader of Darlington Borough Council, has revealed his intentions in rela… Read More

Making Darlington a living and working town centre

Early ideas on plans and proposals to revitalise Darlington’s town centre through targeted investmen… Read More

Work set to get underway on Ingenium Parc industrial site

The first phase of development work on a new industrial site that aims to create more than 2,000 job… Read More